As for the crash of '08; that was our chance to oust the establishment. Only thing I can blame the E.U. for is giving the establishment a lifeline of credit at the time with which to struggle through and protect the vested interests; this along with 23% VAT and pension raid on the poor people got them over the line.

Yep this was the x-factor I'm not sure any of us saw so clearly. It's one that has been insidious in it's workout (time induced fatigue=hidden hand undectect). I guess tptb knew how to play their hand enough to protect themselves in the short-term. Still they are as they're back then dependent on the kindness of strangers as Morgan put it.

So in summary the EU setup a tab as such to finance a lost decade while the bandits made out like... well bandits.

It is the lack of a valid option for acceptable regime change that was the problem? Terrorists who claim to be reformed ex-terrorists or socialist loons who'd have a state supported O'Dell Teo producing 2008 spec desktop computers in 2016 that nobody but the public sector growing at exponential speeds would buy and only then because they were forced to do so.

The deal will see staff receive pay rises totalling 11.25% over three years which equates to 3.75% a year - around the same as the Luas deal, but significantly higher than average awards elsewhere in the private sector.It represents a significant improvement on the 8.25% (2.75% per year) on offer under a Labour Court recommendation previously rejected by the workforce......The deal is not linked to additional productivity.The first 3.75% is backdated to 1 January of this year. The second phase is due on 1 January 2017, with the final tranche payable on 1 January 2018.Under the deal, staff will be expected to cooperate with the introduction of drug and alcohol testing at work.The proposal states that “the testing will be carried out post-accident, for cause and randomly. The random selection will be 5% of employees in any given year".....Cooperation will also be expected on measures to reduce absenteeism.

I expected the settlement to be in the middle of what both sides wanted so 11.25% is there or thereabouts. No shock.But to think in this day and age, and in that line of work, that D&A testing is only coming in now and on such a small scale is mind boggling. And that it had to be negotiated with pay rises to buy it....it just shows you how much power Managment have in Public Service organisations.